Happy New Month, fam!
I can’t believe it’s the end of the year already. This has been quite some ride. At times, bumpy, but God has been to us.
So, the past couple of days have been awful for me on this blog. The new theme I got which was given to me by someone for free but which I had to pay someone else to tweak certain parts, messed up my site.
Yes, I can see some of you smiling. Those of you that didn’t like the change in the first place. And to think my dear friend, Steve (a web developer), offered to help me with it at no cost but I declined because I didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness.
Anyways, the site went berserk on Thursday, showing a 500 Internal Server Error at the backend that now spread to the frontend. At some point, I couldn’t even log in. I contacted my host and they started working with me on it. Of course, being the Nigerians they are, they didn’t find answers for me until the oyinbos that work with them took over the case. At that time, whatever was causing the problem had grown wings and nobody could tell what exactly was wrong with the site. Sometimes one would see the error, other times, it would disappear.
So whenever the error was lenient, I’d jump into the backend and back up the posts by categories. Meanwhile, the site has a plugin that backs up everything every week. Still, I had to be careful. I also went to my cPanel, which is a control panel that basically does the technical work for the site, and backed up everything there. Just to be double safe. I then waited for my host to do their magic. But they had done everything they could and basically told me they would leave my complaint as unresolved.
I was left then left with no option than to delete everything on the site, uninstall WordPress and start afresh. It went smoothly. I was back on track and I imported all that needed to come back, especially the posts. The theme that was causing the issue was done away with and I was back to my old, faithful theme.
Problem solved, right? Wrong.
No single image was imported. I restored my database and re-imported all my content but I kept getting an error message that told me none of my images could be restored.
This made me sad for a while but I was like, it’s all good. I still have the images. I’ll just take coffee one of these nights and add back everything, one by one.
Now, back to the theme. I still loved it and I wanted it, despite everything. So, I went to the website and paid for the theme. Immediately I paid for it, I was sent a download link. I downloaded it, uploaded it to the site, installed and activated it. I was all smiles. Finally, my struggles are over, right? Wong!
I went to my homepage and what did I see? A different theme entirely. This is the point where I am supposed to place my hands on my head and shout, but I don’t. I take deep breaths and check again that I have the right theme. It says SmartBlog, just what I wanted. The same theme I installed before. So why does it look different? I go over this several times and I don’t see anything amiss. I am confused now, annoyed too, thinking I have been duped. But something tells me to check Google and find out if there’s a similar theme. I go on Google and shockingly, there is! And it’s also named Smart Blog.
Can you spot the difference? SmartBlog and Smart Blog. The same name, separated by a space. Now, I place my hands on my head and shout. Where will I start coughing another $52 from to buy the theme I want?
I visit the website that sold it to me, write to them, asking for a refund, and come back to nurse my tears. This is around 5am and my husband has just woken up, worried about me. He tells me all will be well, that I should just revert to my former theme and wait for them to respond. There is little hope that they will refund my money because of their polices. But I am willing to wait.
So, brethren and sistren, that’s my story. The site is still a work-in-progress. As the week wears on, you’ll see noticeable changes, perhaps the old stuff you’re used to. If they don’t refund my money, I’ll still buy what I want after making some Christmas money.
In conclusion, welcome back.
Girls and Memoirs of a Repentant Escort will come up soon.
You haven’t been seeing posts from Wall of Accents because I have deactivated my Facebook account for the time being. I have something new I’m working on. I won’t say much about it. Just anticipate it next year. I didn’t say in January, biko.
Have a beautiful weekend.
Welcome back!
Oh Sally, sorry to hear all you went through.
Sending big hugs your way.
Awww! Kpele. All these wahala for our pleasure! May God bless you in manifolds. Thanks loads Ms Sally. We missed you.
It’s good to have you back. sowi ma’am
So sorry to hear bou all you’ve been through. You can’t imagine how I felt coming here and meeting a blank page. I for son dm you but i knew youd be working on it and ddnt want to add to your stress. Thank you and God bless you ???
Oh Sorry Dear. I noticed the site was acting up as I was reading old stories just to get my mind off been robbed when I entered a one chance bus. Anyways, welcome back. I missed you. Looking forward to my favorite series
Woman of Alien…Fantastic perform you’ve got performed, this site is basically neat with fantastic data. Time is God’s way of retaining all the things from going on at the same time….
Aaw sorry Sally. I kept refreshing the page every few hours. It’s good to have you back. I pray you get that Christmas money. If you want US to help to make this your beloved theme a reality, just say it.
awwwh sorry dear for the stress the sick computer (technology) made you went through, as he dey do man so he dey do system. Just don’t let it bother you so much, things will work out well as planned enh. Regards to your family, and beautiful week ahead for us all.
Sally, so sorry about the issue. I kept refreshing but it was the same error message and I really didn’t want to panic. Sigh…it’s cliché, but be sure that God will provide,some way ,some how. Please don’t be too hard on you. Xo!
Sorry about that, you are welcome back.
You have such a big heart Sally. Going through so much wahala and incurring costs because you want your readers to have a great time. And some spoilsport will sit down and be running mouth ?. Sorry ehn, the Lord is your strength. ??
Oh oh… Too much stress… Sorry ma’am… It’s gon b fine… ??????
Sorry about all you’ve been through. And I’m sure we all appreciate your efforts to make the site the best. All the best
Sorry for all the hassles,you’re very much appreciated and I’m really happy you’re back bcos I missed you bigtime…God bless you abundantly Sally for all your efforts
So sorry Sis! Take a big hug! Indeed all will be well.
Wondered why I didn’t get email notifications all through the weekend. Now I know why. Think I have to re-subscribe.
I like the level of commitment you show to your writing. Blessings and progress.